Saturday, February 27, 2010

One show down...only 24 hours to go til it's all over

So I didn't get much of a chance to blog about the Opening Ceremony. The days in between have been a lot more quiet. I have spent the days catching up on long overdue sleep and the nights unloading trucks for the next day's Victory Ceremony. I have seen lots of athletes stand on that podium and watch their flags raised in their honor. I even danced in my office to INXS sans Michael Hutchence. I waved my Australian flag with pride when Torah Bright won gold in the half pipe. I even sang along with the National Anthem. I have some video footage of it, but I need to edit it down a bit as the file is too big. Will get it posted here soon. This has been a very exciting time for me. Major international event, 2 countries to cheer for. And it all comes to a grinding halt tomorrow night. The show was obviously a huge hit. Of course, when the floor didn't open for the last piece of the cauldron, we weren't really breathing, but it does remind you that what we do is live and entirely based on every single thing working. You can only prepare so well. It would have been nice to have the commentary not be so blatant about our issues, but what can you do. My mom and dad got to come to Vancouver to see the dress rehearsal. They were so excited that they did. I barely saw them but I was certainly glad they got to experience it. Unfortunately they not only missed out on having their traditional SuperBowl party, but they were also bummed that their team missed out on being in it by only 1 games. But brother Brock came to the party rescue and hosted, I hear, quite an event in their honor at his place in Seattle. I am sure you have seen most of these images, but I need to remember them somehow. My favourite moment with KD Lang I didn't take any photos of because I was so into the moment. It was spectacular, but here are a few others:

The Opening MomentThe Stage is set for the Athletes arrivalTeam Australia Enters (with Torah Bright on the flag!)Team USA EntersThe Polar BearThe Tapping SegmentThe SnowboardersThe Inside CauldronThe Outside CauldronBC Place exterior Fireworks post-showDuring the 48 hours before the ceremony itself, I was working like mad to distribute the pallets of 60,000 programs and Audience Participation Kits - you know, the little items that each of the audience members gets so they can have huge crowd effects like candles during KD Lang etc. It was exhausting, but we got it all done. I barely slept and honestly you wouldn't want to know how many consecutive hours I was awake. Adrenaline really does keep you going. It just takes some time to recover from the downfall.Now it's onto the Closing Ceremony. Can't say anything about it obviously at this stage, except that Brock is coming to see it live and in person. He gets here in about 7 hours from now. Will be good to see him. Looking forward to spending a bit more time in Seattle after this is all over.I also had time on my 1 day off to hit up the Vida Day Spa thanks to my Australian friends. They got me a gift card to a spa here so I could relax post games. I have used half of it now and plan to head back when it all over with. Thanks so much guys! I had the best body wrap, exfoliation and massage ever! I really needed it too!After Closing Ceremony, we will start to get ready for the opening of the Paralympics. That is the only event we have in our venue, so starting at midnight on the 13 March, we start getting rid of everything. This is a massive job and we don't have a lot of time to do it in either. But on 31 March, my contract ends. I have no idea what I am doing next, but I think a holiday is in order. My second massage awaits. Job hunting begins. Am hoping to get down to Ohio, South Carolina and maybe even Florida for some well deserved R&R, then back to work somewhere. I think I am most looking forward to returning to the world of the living and removing myself from the Vampire night shift that I am currently working!Oh how the world is my constant oyster. Best make the most of it. Lots of love,Sarah